Citizen Tom

First Governor Tim Kaine decided to mothball almost half of Virginia’s interstate rest areas.

The Virginia Department of Transportation began notifying motorists Monday of impending changes at the rest areas slated for closure later this month.

In June, the Commonwealth Transportation Board finalized plans to scale-back the number of rest areas VDOT maintains and operates from 42 to 23 as the agency grapples with a $2.6-billion revenue shortfall.

Electronic message signs notifying visitors that the facilities will close July 21 are being posted at each location beginning Monday and VDOT has updated its Website and 511 traveler information system to reflect the closures.  (from here)

Then Delegate Bob Marshall proposed a private sector solution.

Del. Robert G. “Bob” Marshall (R-13th District) sent a letter Tuesday to Congressman Frank Wolf and Sen. Mark Warner requesting that they introduce an amendment to the Transportation Appropriations Bill to suspend the federal law for one year which prohibits Virginia and other states from contracting with private restaurants or gas stations to operate at state owned rest stops on interstates.  (from here)

Next Congressman Frank Wolf decided get a waiver from the Federal Government.  Nanny state regulations prevent prevent a private sector solution.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf plans to propose an amendment to the annual transportation spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year that would suspend the federal law barring commercialization of rest stops, Dan Scandling, a spokesman for Wolf, said.  (from here)

So what happened?  The Democrats will not reverse socialism.  No matter what, the vanguard of the proletariat will not allow reversals.

An effort to keep some Virginia interstate highway rest areas open by privatizing them has been defeated in a congressional committee.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, offered an amendment to a bill moving through the House Appropriations Committee that would have essentially exempted the commonwealth from a 1960 law banning commercialization at rest stops, but the amendment failed on a 32-26 vote.

Unless something extraordinary happens, the Virginia Department of Transportation will close 18 rest stops on Tuesday in an effort to save money, including a stop on Interstate 81 southbound at New Market. (from here)

Del. Robert G. “Bob” Marshall (R-13th District) sent a letter Tuesday to Congressman Frank Wolf and Sen. Mark Warner requesting that they introduce an amendment to the Transportation Appropriations Bill to suspend the federal law for one year which prohibits Virginia and other states from contracting with private restaurants or gas stations to operate at state owned rest stops on interstates.

HUG A POLAR BEAR!

Do you like killing jobs, destroying businesses, creating economic havoc, and promoting poverty?  Then you will love the so-called climate change bill, H.R.2454.

Charlie Fugate of Good Sense just put up a post that describes the economic dislocation that passage of H.R.2454 would produce in his congressional district, the 9th Virginia (see here).  His post is based upon projections provided in a Web Memo from Heritage.  Here is a link to the table reference in the web memo.

Never fear.  We in the 11th Congression District will not be left out of the fun.

(See the web memo for a definition of terms.)

• GSP Losses in 2012 (in Millions) = $649.96
• Average GSP Loss, 2012-2035 (in Millions) = $1,294.03 mil
• Personal Income Loss in 2012 (in Millions) = $642.72
• Average Personal Income Loss 2012 –2035 = $372.24
• Non-Farm Job Loss in 2012 = 5,202
• Non-Farm Job Loss 2012-2035 = 3,263 per year

Moreover, our industrious new congressman Gerald Connolly (D) (who without doubt was too busy getting his beauty rest to read the bill before he voted for it), voted for H.R.2454 (see here).  The congressional leadership released the 1200 page bill at 3 AM on the day of the vote.  Thus you may rest assured that your congressman is working diligently to make absolutely certain your air will be clean of green house gases.  In fact, one wonders if he will do such a great job that we will be around to enjoy the results.

Freedom comes at a cost.  Sometimes it comes at a terrible cost.  Over 200 hundred years ago, the Founders of the United States came together in their small communities.  They saw the actions of a British King determined to oppress them.   Unopposed, they feared the King would unravel their lives.  First, he would deprive them of their traditional rights.  Next, he would tax their wealth.  Finally, he would reduce them to serfs.

The colonists wondered what to do.  Some understood the first step.  Those men and women gathered their courage.  Then they got organized.

The Declaration of Independence marked the official beginning of American Revolution.  We celebrate that event on 4th of July.  However, with festivities we now call the Boston Tea Party (see here), the violence began on December 16, 1773 .

Those opposed to the ongoing power grab in Washington D. C. want you to join them in a 4th of July celebration that hearkens back to the heroic struggles of our nation’s Founders.  You are invited to exercise the freedoms for which men and women like you and I risked their lives.  Those freedoms includes the First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and speak your mind.

Event details are available at the official Prince William County VA Tea Party website.  RPVNetwork is also providing coverage here.

The news is full of stories about imaginary people.  Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett are dead.  The stories of a big star and a little star have ended; their innumerable fans are in mourning, escaping into wise and knowing commentaries about the profound importance of two diverting entertainers.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has passed H.R.2454 (story here).  The title of the bill should reassure us.

To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.

Don’t we all know that our leaders always have our best interests at heart?  None of these honorable men and women have any desire except to be servants of the public.  Ambition is the farthest thing from their minds.  None would dare to think of themselves as our all knowing overseers.

The Washington Post, that wise spokesperson for Truth, Justice, and Traditional American Ways, describes the key provisions of the legislation here.  This is a list of the wonderful things that will happen if the Senate passes the climate bill.  So again, we should be reassured.  Anything that is in print must be true.  We can be certain our country is in safe and knowing hands.

Nonetheless, there are reports from alarmists determined to find fault in this 1300 page bill.

• The bill was unveiled at 3 AM yesterday, the day before the vote.   So these alarmists complained they had not had time to read the bill.  Don’t they trust the leadership?
• CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that over the 2010-2019 period enacting this legislation would increase federal revenues by about $846 billion; and increase direct spending by about $821 billion.  CBO also estimates that implementing H.R. 2454 would increase discretionary spending by about $50 billion over the 2010-2019 period.  (from here)
• In its own article, the Washington Post noted peculiar behavior by our legislative leaders.
  

  The bill’s co-sponsors, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman  Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Markey, rejected Obama’s proposal to auction all emission allowances and use most of the revenues for tax cuts. Instead the measure would give away 85 percent of the annual emission allowances to consumers, coal-intensive manufacturers and utilities, as well as a variety of clean-energy interests, such as biofuel developers and superconductor makers. Most of those free allowances would be phased out in 10 to 20 years.That set off a lobbying feeding frenzy, with 880 business and interest groups registered to lobby on the bill.

• Some Republicans regard the H.R.2454 as an organizational nightmare that kills jobs.
  

• Others fear the bill as overreaching tyranny.
  

What is this complex bill about?  Will it do what it is advertised to do?  Do you know, or are you more interested in escaping into the lives of  people you will never know and may not have want to have known except on a TV?

By the way, the Washington Post shows how our congressmen vote here.  You may wish to let you congressmen know how you feel and tell your Senators how you feel about this bill (start here).

Other Views

From On High questions what the bill was about here.

Blue Virginia posts a statement (here) from Congressman Tom Perriello, the blogger’s hero.

Fred2Blue raves about Congressman Tom Perriello’s balls (here).

high-pressure
adj : aggressively and persistently persuasive; “a hard-hitting
advertising campaign”; “a high-pressure salesman” [syn:
hard-hitting]

Although I am not as far from that point as I might wish, I have yet to become an old man.  Nonetheless, because we have a new presidential administration every four to eight years, I have still managed to see quite a few.  Barack Obama’s presidency is turning out unlike anything I remember.

Why is the Obama administration so different?  Here we have both government and the corporate news media conspiring to encapsulate and imprison us in the stress of an unending crisis.   Usually our leadership wants us calm and reassured, but not the Obama administration.

Consider how the Obama administration is selling its current top priority.

When President Obama vowed last week to rebuild the nation’s slumping economy on the strength of “five pillars,” there was little doubt on which column construction would begin first – health care reform.  (continued here)

Health care reform is now an economic pillar?  It use to be that opposing the Democratic Party’s health care agenda just meant you lacked compassion for the poor and children.  Opposing Obama’s health care reforms now also means you must be an economic wrecker.  Consider the emphasis Obama puts upon his economic pillars.

We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity – a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.

It’s a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. That is the new foundation we must build. That must be our future – and my Administration’s policies are designed to achieve that future. (text of Obama’s speech here)

Same pile of sand?  The American economy use to be based upon free enterprise.  That is, our economy did not rest upon just five pillars and the judgment of our political leadership.  Instead we each had the job of shoring a portion of the economy with our own hard work and individual decisions.  Yet Obama tells us that we now have a pile of sand for a foundation, and we must replace it.

• New rules for Wall Street: Until politicians started meddling in the mortage lending industry, bankers avoided lending to bad credit risks.  There is no profit in it (see here).  Does Obama propose less government intervention?  No.
• New investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive: American education began as a disparate system of local and private schools that competed with each other to be the best.   Since then politicians have made more and more promises and spent more and more money.  Yet Obama promises more Federal involvement and wants to spend more.  Why?   With government “fixes,” has our educational system gotten better or has it become an increasingly homogeneous system dominated by special interests such as the teacher’s unions?
• New investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries: What do we call it when government invests in and seeks to dominate the private economy?  The answer is socialism, and we have examples from around the world that socialism increases pollution and undermines economic activity.   The problem is a blatant conflict of interest.  Who can regulate themselves without bias?  If government runs the economy, who will regulate it?
• New investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses: The stated goal is preposterous.  Increasing the role of government cuts costs?  How can anybody be so stupid as to believe that?
• New savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations: Has anybody been watching what has been going on in Washington D.C.?  This economic pillar should have been a laugh line.  You want to know how serious Obama is about budget cuts?  Read this.  Believe it or not, I found it in the New York Times.

We are now led by people who rave joyously of the glories of racial and ethnic diversity, but they fight diversity tooth and nail.  With fear and irrational hope, Obama is fooling ignorant people into voting for bigger government.  Instead of economic diversity, Obama wants us to conform to his rule and a state controlled economy.  What will that accomplish?  It will secure the power of entrenched elites, what some might call “an oligarchy or plutocracy of lawyers, if not a kleptocracy” (from here).